Bloom Where You are Planted

Do you like to sit on the porch while it rains?

You do?

Oh good! Then let me pull one of those rockers over here by me.

Let’s talk.

I lit a pungent candle in hopes of keeping the mosquitoes at bay…well several candles actually.

The frogs are belting out their guttural call from somewhere near the pond and I hear a bird whistling a tune that is new to me.

But the rain…
is a gentle drizzle that seems to surround like a cloak, beckoning somewhere between relaxation and a reminder of the urgency of the tasks at hand.

Forget the urgency, I will sit… because time here at the farmhouse passes quickly.

This past, Friday evening our son and his dear wife arrived to spend the night and  some time on Saturday, before heading out to celebrate their first anniversary. Yesterday, after a late breakfast on the porch and good conversation, they were off. Memorial weekend here in Indianapolis is never lacking activity and ever the racing enthusiasts, they were anxious to be on their way.

How can it possibly already be a year since they were married? How does time pass so quickly?

But yet I sit, on the porch, in the rain, with my husband. He’s a good porch mate! We both have a white blanket draped over us because this drizzle brings a damp chill.  When I set a candle at our feet, I told him the candle was our fire pit!

But he’s lost in his own contemplation, so let’s talk.
You and I.

Are you blooming where you are planted?

Earlier today I was reading an article on the stages of grief and how some people get stuck in the anger phase. Anger pulls you in and appears to give reason to your grief and allows you to cast blame for your pain.

I stopped and thought about the grief I have felt across the years as I’ve experienced pain and loss and disappointment. And I wondered if I’ve even moved through the stages of grief, or if I just ignored those stages and kept telling myself that I was fine and all would be fine and it could most certainly be worse. And I didn’t answer the question today that I asked myself!

But I digress, and that’s a rabbit trail…

Don’t you just love it when you have inspiring friends?

I do too!

I have one friend who after 4 years of college to acquire a degree in nursing, landed her dream job as a nurse at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. After working there for a year, when IU Health restructured as a result of the economic downturn, she was one of the ones who was cut from her position. Reeling from the shock, she took a job as a travel nurse. She and her husband have been able to travel all over the US while she makes awesome friends and amazingly cares for babies and children, earning the “Daisy Award” time and again. Everywhere she goes, she settles in and makes a wonderful life, even if just for 6 weeks or two or three months. For her it’s an adventure and it is life! She has goals she says and she’s making the most of this opportunity. Her job loss could have devastated her but she found an open door and set off to bloom where she was planted. She has thrived, through adversity.

Another friend has stood by her husband’s side as they battled for his life through two bone marrow transplants. She has kept her full time job as an attorney, managed household emergencies, kept a schedule of friends around the clock to be with her husband at the hospital and family members at home so they would never be left alone. I have seen her rally a force of help at every turn, the likes of which is nothing short of astonishing. She never stopped and now that he is more than 100 days past his second transplant, they are doing many things they never thought they would have the chance to do together again. They are making the most of every single day.  She has absolutely bloomed where she was planted, right in the very shadows of death.

One of my brothers is walking through a memory illness with his beautiful wife.  The way he so gently encourages her to stay involved, to converse, to remain active, as he pastors a church and teaches school, is a true example to me of faithfully keeping the vows that he made years ago, AND blooming in adversity, always encouraging others, shepherding his flock of church members and inspiring his students.

Those are just two of my friends and one brother, among countless friends and family that I could mention, who inspire me.

They inspire me to live beyond myself,

to continue to strive to rise above the things that I may consider adversity.

My reality.

The here and now.
And I ask myself have I bloomed where I was planted?
Have I thrived in adversity?

What I consider to be adversity in my life may be nothing to you…but the question is have I thrived?

Have I made the most of every single moment? I know I have certainly tried.

I don’t want to be a person who wilts and whimpers from exhaustion or cowers in the face of fear. I don’t want to be one who lashes in hate, when love and gentleness cover offenses. I want to have eyes that see others from a Higher perspective and not my own. I want to be kind and encouraging. It is easy to give into discouragement or exhaustion and feel like there is no use and no purpose…but there is…

…there is PURPOSE!

For you!

THERE’S PURPOSE FOR YOU!

That’s why we are talking here…on the porch…

…you have no idea who may be watching your story and gaining courage as they watch you bloom and thrive through your adversity.

You have a sphere of influence everywhere you go…everyday.

We aren’t promised tomorrow!

You may be sick,

penniless,

heart broken…

if you have nothing to plant…

to bloom…

plant kindness…

So go ahead,

plant your flowers

spread seeds of kindness

sprinkle sunshine

shake glitter from you footsteps

and BLOOM dear one!

BLOOM!!